Evening Gazette Our Say

Mo Mowlam was not only the most popular politician in the country she was such a warm, amusing and gutsy individual that the mere mention of her name was enough to bring a smile to most people's faces.

Mo Mowlam was not only the most popular politician in the country she was such a warm, amusing and gutsy individual that the mere mention of her name was enough to bring a smile to most people's faces.

Her death, at such a comparatively young age, is a tragedy.

Yet, if she was watching us now, she would ridicule the fuss that will be made.

When Mo left Parliament the political profile of the country was the greyer for it. Her special talent was to touch each person she met with her magic. No one who came into contact with Mo ever forgot her.

Her personality and persona brought a dash of colour, a ray of sunshine, into the normally dull and serious world of politics.

But she was so much more than that.

She was an intelligent, articulate, effective and courageous politician. Alongside her humour there was a frankness that was disarming - as many a senior figure found out.

She stood as an ambassador at the highest level, and was just as comfortable with the man and woman in the street.

She was, as Sir Stuart Bell describes her, 'a lioness in terms of Labour Party and National policy'.

But she was just as likely to tuck into a bag of fish and chips - or cheekily nick a chip off the plate of someone she was talking to.

Mo will go down in history as a political giant, but she will live in the hearts of this generation as a warm woman with the common touch.

Her greatest political achievement was her role in bringing about the Good Friday Peace Agreement.

It also highlighted her special style. Mo was accessible to all, even going into the Maze Prison to speak to prisoners.

In her political life she may have broken rules of etiquette and stood on a few toes, but that was her devil-may-care style.

And she applied that philosophy to herself.

When a wig she wore, after losing her hair to chemotherapy treatment for a brain tumour, became itchy she simply pulled it off and threw it away.